The Juggling Snowman Tie

Christmas Tie Two

So, Judging by this picture I am way too happy about this tie. The first picture my wife took made me look constipated (or so my wife says) and since I'd rather not advertise that to the whole world -uh, oh wait! I used this one. I also didn't crop this picture so you can see our pretty pink kitchen paneling. Hopefully that will be replaced soon.

This is one of my first snowman ties. I think my wife gave it to me. I can relate well to it because he is jolly, round, and well dressed. His giant stovepipe hat is a little hard to see and sometimes is mistaken for me having used my tie to blow my nose. In case you can't tell, the snowman is juggling snowballs (insert middle schooler joke here). I always wished I could juggle -you know to impress the girls. Alas, I had to rely on my wit and charm.

Tonight I had the chance to re-visit one of the coolest sites on the internet. www.blabberize.com I will try to post a product of this site soon. It is truly one of the best, if not most time-wastiest web 2.0 tools out there. I'd love to have others create some of their own and share them here as well.

The First Tie of the Day

Here's the first "tie of the day." This will also begin the Christmas series.

Late this summer, I sorted through my ties and tried to pick out some of my favorites to start the year off. There were so many in the box, that I could not fit them all on the rack or in the top drawer of my dresser. That drawer is designated as the "tie drawer." Sorting them was supposed to help this, so as I watched some rerun of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I began the process. I was soon overwhelmed. I have, at best estimate, over 300 ties. So, to make the sorting process easier I decided to pick out the ties that I like to wear on special days. This meant I could organize by seasons.

Christmas ties seemed like a good place for me to start this blog. The blog is essentially an experiment and I needed a reason to write it. Sharing my ties with the world seemed like a good excuse. I hope to tie in some stories and other miscellaneous tidbits as we go along.

I have 23 winter, snow man, or Christmas themed ties. I refuse to wear a Christmas tie before Thanksgiving, so that means that I only have 15 school days to wear these ties. Tonight my wife and I attended the school Christmas dinner and silent auction sponsored by the local NEA chapter. We had a good time visiting with some of our friends and colleagues. During one particular conversation with a fine elementary teacher and his wife, the subject of ties came up. He declared that he had one Christmas tie. I will be giving him four of mine. I am glad to share them, as I am not in the classroom each day and think that they would be appreciated more with him. I would like to continue doing this, both getting and giving away.

I am not sure where this particular tie came from, but I really like the color on it. Specifically, I appreciate the red border and the different color of snow flakes. I still wasn't too keen on choosing a tie that jumped right into the Christmas season, but this seemed subtle enough. A snowman reflects the winter and cold (it currently is 28 degrees out), but hint at the coming holidays. I think I will try to stay with that plan for most of the week.